


Untitled Fluff Collection

by thelma_throwaway



Category: Naruto
Genre: Caught in the Rain, Day at the Spa, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Guess we're raising a baby, Library AU, M/M, More Fluff, MultiSaku - Freeform, Sakura x everybody, meet cute, no massacre au, sick day
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:28:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 9,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27042766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelma_throwaway/pseuds/thelma_throwaway
Summary: Collection of fluffy fluffs as an interlude to kinktober (cuddling is highly important during this time).Based of prompt submissions from Tumblr.
Relationships: Aburame Shino/Haruno Sakura, Gaara/Rock Lee, Haruno Sakura/Hatake Kakashi, Haruno Sakura/Nara Shikamaru, Haruno Sakura/Sai, Haruno Sakura/Shiranui Genma, Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Itachi, Hatake Kakashi/Yamato | Tenzou, Hyuuga Hinata/Uchiha Sasuke
Comments: 51
Kudos: 178





	1. Guess We're Raising a Baby Now- KakaSaku

“Pick it up.”

Kakashi grimaces.

“You pick it up.”

Anko scoffs and spits and picks up the stinking, squirming little creature like it’s poisonous. Immediately it’s dirty maw splits in two, emitting an ear splitting squall and she nearly drops it.

Kakashi catches the poor thing before it hits the ground and the wailing stops.

“I broke it,” he says dumbly.

“No I think you fixed it,” Anko guffaws and takes off through the trees. “Keep up!”

It sleeps in his arms, the dappled green shadow of leaves twirling on its round face as he runs through the trees. At the village gates, the guards crane their necks to see what he has tucked into his vest.

“That’s one ugly monkey,” one of them whistles. It fusses and spits up in his general direction. 

“It’s not a monkey,” Kakashi snaps. 

By the time he gets to the mission desk his arms are sore so he puts it on his hip instead, oblivious to the mewls and sighs that follow him down the hall. 

“Put it down,” Anko barks as they debrief with Iruka. She can’t stand the smell or sound of it.

Kakashi goes to put the baby down on a chair and it keens, startling a trio of birds from the roof.

“Unbelievable,” she huffs as Kakashi jiggles it back to sleep 

“I think we can get someone to take the baby,” Iruka suggests gently and reaches out for it. “Here…”

As soon as the little sack of potatoes is in Iruka’s palms it’s eyes shoot open and it starts to scream again.

Iruka’s lip trembles. No living thing has ever reacted to him this way. 

The someone they get, to Kakashi’s great displeasure, is Haruno Sakura.

Her grin stretches from ear to ear and she can’t hold in the giggles.

“Is this so important that the hospital director herself had to come?” He averts his eyes and huffs. “I’m pretty sure it’s just a regular filthy baby.”

“I had to see for myself,” she says wiping a tear from her eye. “I never thought of you as someone with maternal instincts.”

She holds out her hands and he draws the baby closer to his chest. Every time he puts it down it cries itself red, pathetic and inconsolable, and he can’t stand it.

Sakura raises a brow.

“Really?”

“It cries.”

“I’m a professional.”

Kakashi shrugs, holds the baby over and it starts to scream as soon as it’s in her arms. 

“Okay then,” she shouts over the wailing. “You’re coming with me.”

She clears her kitchen sink of dishes and scrubs it down well before plugging the drain and turning on the tap. Kakashi stands with the baby in the living room, staring out the window. He looks down and the baby is looking at him, watery dark eyes set in grimy cheeks, a toothless grimace and a squashed looking nose. 

“You’re not such an ugly monkey,” he promises the little creature. 

It gurgles noncommittally.

Sakura beckons him into the kitchen, works on carefully removing the baby’s mud covered clothes while Kakashi stands there holding the baby aloft, staring out the window. She turns her head this way and that as she goes, looking for injuries and signs of illness with a smile and a cooing voice.

“You’re ok,” she singsongs with a grin, fingertips dancing over the baby’s cheeks, getting a rare giggle and smile. “A very lucky, looked after baby. Whose parents are…”

She looks up at Kakashi and he looks away.

“Civilians?”

He clears his throat and she shakes her head.

“DOA,” he clarifies. 

“In that case we need to return this baby to it’s village as soon as possible.” She's letting the baby pull and chew on her fingers but her look is serious. 

“They were rogue.”

“How romantic.” Sakura raises an eyebrow, looking down at the mud covered cretin in his hands. A pained expression flexes across bee brow. “Tragic.” 

“Don’t get any ideas,” Kakashi sighs and leans down to give her a gentle peck. Something wriggles in his chest, kissing Sakura in the warm light of the kitchen window, the baby between them, the bubble of the kitchen sink filling with water. He clears his throat and tries not to think too hard about it.

“Welcome back,” she replies with a dreamy grin. “We never finished our discussion. About what this is…” 

“I don’t think now's the time.” He blushes and gestures at the gurgling infant in his hands.

Sakura tsks and tests the water one last time. “You’re always doing things out of order, Kakashi. Baby in a baby carriage usually comes after love and marriage.”

He blushes at the suggestion.

“Is it hospital protocol to bring a wayward baby home for a bath.”

“No,” she says with a shrug and goes up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. “I didn’t want to share the sight of you giving a cute little baby a bath.”

Sakura guides the baby feet first into the lukewarm water and it squeals in delight. Kakashi averts his eyes and she smirks.

“Don’t you want to know? Boy or girl?”

“It’s hardly my business.” 

“I guess one day they’ll be able to tell us themselves,” Sakura agrees with a shrug. “How about a name for now. 

“I like Yasu.”

“Yasu?” Sakura wets a washcloth and works in a bit of unscented soap before cupping handfuls of water over the baby’s chubby arms and head, rubbing gently over its cheeks to wipe them free of grime. “Not a very calm child, Kakashi.”

“I disagree.” Kakashi offers the baby his finger and shakes the tiny fist that closes around it.

“Yasu,” she says again. “ Hatake Yasu.” 

“Hold on—”

“Just trying it out,” she teases. 

Kakashi averts his eyes. The timing of this little pup’s appearance could not have come at a less opportune time.

The night before the mission something had snapped irrevocably in him while watching Sakura unwrap her hands after a spar. Something about the poppy red blossoms of blood where the white linen pressed on her knuckles, the slow reveal of slender fingers crackling with chakra, the dust she’d created from solid rock tickling his nose.

He’d kissed her soundly and she’d returned it and they spent the evening admitting to each other several things they both already knew. He’d slipped away at dawn to make his team rendezvous, leaving her perturbed and half dressed and looking absolutely devastating. 

“Ok, just Yasu for now.” She runs the cloth over the baby’s shoulders, works the dirt from their hair. Soon the water is dark with mud and she has Kakashi lift the baby so she can give one last rinse. “You clean up good, Su-chan!”

Under the mud and grime is just a regular baby, olive skin and thick black hair, over large ears to match the massive eyes. 

It’s not going to win any beauty contests but then again it doesn’t need to. It’s just a baby. 

The infant is snoring softly by the time she bundles it into a fluffy cotton cloth and back into Kakashi’s embrace. 

“My arms,” he whines, voice low. “Just try.”

“No way,” she mouths back, pantomiming a crying baby. Instead she beckons him to follow her to the living room. 

“I’m so tired.” He settles on the couch with his head on her stomach, Yasu on his chest. 

“I know, Kash.” Her fingers thread through his hair, and he unconsciously puts a palm on the baby’s back and presses gently. This was all he thought about, since he’d left through the bedroom window three weeks ago. To be back under her hands. 

Minus, of course, the snoring baby.

Though it’s not a bad addition. 

“Sakura,” he mutters drowsily. 

“Hmm?”

“How do you feel about dating a single dad?”

“I’m very open to the possibility,” she replies and leans down to kiss him to sleep.


	2. I fell in love with your mind- ShikaSaku

The afternoon ends and the moon rises and still Shikamaru sits in the garden, hunched on his thighs with his fingers pressed together. She slides open the door, lights a lantern with the touch of a green finger tip.

“Anata,” she says seriously. “Give it up.” 

“Hmph.” An eyebrow twitches but besides that he’s still. 

She folds her legs under her to sit beside him. It had taken a little getting used to, living in the Nara’s traditional compound. Everything was low to the ground and whisper thin and so richly carved and embroidered she’s afraid to touch most things. 

“Do you want me to tell you?” She leans against his shoulder with a pout. 

“Absolutely not.” 

“Then will you come inside…” Shikamaru shakes his head but not hard enough to disturb the lithe hand pulling the thin leather tie from his topknot. A curtain of thick dark falls over his shoulders, gathering in her lap and she curls a strand around her fingers and lets the other hand ghost over his hips to land on the opposite thigh. “Will you come to bed?”

Here his resolve fails. An eye pops open. 

“Hmph.” The eye closes. “I still think you cheated.”

“Husband.” The hand begins to move up and down his thigh, disturbing the crook of his elbow, and she curls the strand of hair around her fingers tighter. “If you don’t give it up right now and come lay down with me, I’m going to tell you  _ exactly _ how I maneuvered my knight—“

“No!” He drowns out the answer with a kiss, tugging her into his lap, falling back with her on the narrow little porch. “I said don’t tell me!”

Sakura giggles, and she looks young under the flickering lantern, young as she had been when he  _ should _ have told her how he felt. Hindsight, of course, has the benefit of perfect vision. But the wasted time is nothing compared to the years they have ahead. 

Shikamaru sighs and wraps his arms around her shoulders, holding her tight to 

his chest and squeezing another laugh from her. 

“I guess I did fall in love with your mind, eh?”

“I know.” She kisses the soft diamond of skin at the base of his throat. “How troublesome.”


	3. lovestruck- ItaSaku

“Hey! Ita-san!”

The dango is halfway to his mouth and the coin in his hand is halfway to the vendors palm when a pink flash appears next to him, pushing him away with the bump of its hip.

He regains his composure by the time she turns to him, dripping skewer of her own already pinched in mint green manicured nails. 

“Let me,” she grins. “It’s been a while— I can’t believe Sasuke didn’t mention you were home!”

“You know how he is.” Itachi crinkles his eyes into a smile but he’s a bit unnerved. Coming back to the village after a long mission is always strange, especially after emerging from a deep cover. He’s still getting used to being called his own name again. 

She leads them to a bench tucked to the side of the sweets shop, their backs to the wall. A tactically advantageous position, he notes.

“I bet you’re glad to be back,” she sighs. “I’ve been so busy at the hospital I haven’t gotten to leave the village in months.”

“Two very contrary thoughts,” he says with a polite smile. “I’d think you’d want to get out and stretch your legs.”

“‘Nah,” she laughs and it’s a  _ laugh _ not a giggle, and even though he’s seen her this way so many times—- dango in hand, light angling through the trees to shine off her hitatai— and maybe it’s the time or the distance or exhaustion but she looks different. A new type of creature from before. 

And he thinks it must be because she  _ laughed _ . Clear, throaty, with her head thrown back, a carefree grin accompanying it. His brother's teammate, his taichou’s student. 

Many reasons to resist. And just one not to.

“I just meant,” she says once her smile has relaxed. “It always feels good to come back, right?”

There’s syrup on her bottom lip and he’s struck with the sudden urge to  _ lick _ it off and his head swims. He feels the blush rising to his cheeks, looks away but a little too slow because a sparkle of recognition dances in her eyes and she swipes the sugar away with the tip of her tongue.

He nibbles the pink dumpling on the tip of his skewer, looks down, blushes again and clears his throat. “It does. Sakura?”

“Yes?” She quirks a brow and nips her bottom lip between her teeth, drawing his eye to the movement and grinning when she catches him. 

“How would you like to get lunch instead?” 


	4. Weather based meet cute- SakuSai

About two seconds after their target goes down the heavens split open and dump a needling, freezing thunderstorm right on their heads.

Sai unfurls the inky wings they’d been sheltered under just as the color begins to run. It’s drips over their hair and faces, running down arms and fingertips towards the already muddy ground.

“Sorry.” The hint of a wince tweaks his chin.

“Why?” Sakura wipes a cluster of black smudges from her shoulder. Her chest still rises and falls rapidly, adrenaline resettling itself. It hadnt been an easy fight. “You didn’t know it was going to rain.”

“I mean..” He gestures vaguely to the melting wings. “I know you don’t need protection. Or assistance.”

Sakura tilts her head and laughs a little. She’d been staring down a barrage of chakra tipped arrows when the ink wings had closed over her, watched them explode uselessly against Sai’s defense when she felt him draw close behind her, his tight promise to finish it hot against her ear. 

“Well I definitely needed it this time.” She shields her eyes from the rain and smiles, trying to wipe every contrary emotion from her mind (frustration that her attack plan had failed, annoyance at the water in her sandal, an alarming blush inspired by Sai’s serious expression). He has a way of reading every microscopic movement of a face.

“It's just that if I let you die I’d have a lot of angry people on my hands,” he lies pleasantly. “Naruto, in particular. I think Kakashi-taichou would be disappointed, too.”

“Glad we could avoid that.” She scans the tree line and ignores his explanation completely. She’d seen the fear and rage in his eyes when she’d been knocked mid-punch against the rock face, leaving a Sakura shaped dent in the mountainside. “Let’s get out of the rain, huh?” 

They hop through the trees until they find a likely spot— a decrepit lean-to on an overgrown plot. There’s a hole in the roof and no sign of life.

“Bet there’s only one bed,” she mutters.

“Huh?”

“Nothing.” 

Inside the hut is dusty with no bed at all but it’s dry and there’s a cracked chair to use as kindling. They lay out their wet clothes in front of the fire, huddling under the thin blankets that fold into a flat square in their packs. 

There’s no point in rushing back to Konoha in the deluge. Sai shivers and his teeth chatter, and she inches over to wrap an arm around his shoulder. He cuddles closer in a distinctly Naruto-like gesture, letting a lock of her wet, ink dyed hair fall against his cheek. 

“I lied,” he says after an hour of listening to the rain fall hard on the roof.

“Hm?” She’s getting drowsy. The sound of rain, her plummeting adrenaline, the crackling fire, the weight of Sai’s head on her shoulder. The feel of his silky hair against her cheek. 

“I’m not sorry for protecting you earlier.”

“That’s what teams are for, Sai.” One of her hands comes to rest the crown of his head, the other reaches to pull his blanket closer around him. “To help.”

“But it’s obvious you don’t like to be helped or protected.” His voice is soft but perturbed and he tips his head up to look at her, causing her hand to slide the back of his neck. He looks lost as ever, cold and wet and cuddled against her. He’s like a porcelain doll, some forest spirit that’s manifested in her lap. Anything but an assassin. 

“I don’t like people to think I can’t do it myself. Accepting my teammates' help has always been my challenge.”

“I don’t understand the distinction.” He shakes his head, looking a bit crestfallen. “But I’d like to keep… helping. I know you don’t need me to.”

“Well.” Sakura considers the hole the roof, their wrinkled gear drying by the fire. She bites her lip, shivers at the memory of Sai’s expression when his ink falcon has tightened its claws around their target, squeezing hard enough that you could hear the bones pop. “I think… If you want to help… I think we’d be a lot warmer if we shared the blankets.” 

Sai’s expression melts from confusion to something very close to mischief. In one motion he slips from under his blanket into hers and she gasps at the unexpected heat of his skin against her. The movement reverses their positions and all of the sudden she finds herself under his deceptively muscular arms, head on his shoulder and a steadying hand on his chest.

She feels the blood and chakra pump under her palm, stifles a whimper as his breath dries the hair clinging to her throat when he whispers against her ear. “Is this better?”

Sakura takes a shaky breath and steals a glance up at him. Sai is  _ smiling _ like a cat with a canary.

“Yeah,” she murmurs as she angles closer, bringing her lips into striking distance. She’s intrigued and a little confused, but in the middle of a rainstorm far from home it feels like there’s nothing else but this anyway. No complications, no considerations. Just two very warm bodies in a very close space.

Sai breathes her in for a moment before moving. His hand is curled against her cheek and she has the presence of mind to wonder what book he got this out of because it deserves an award. He stops just far enough away that she’ll have to close the distance herself. 

“Is there anything else I can do?”

“Um.” Sakura arches up to meet him. “Yes.”


	5. I fell in love with your mind-KakaSaku

The gears turn, twisting into place like hand seals in a wellworn formation under her brow— the one she’d cover with one hand, even after all this time, if she knew he was looking at it.

It’s a defensive reflex, honed after years of teasing and even more years of worrying, long past the point that anyone would dare to say a bad word to her or about her. 

She smiles a bit as the answer fully forms and she meets his eyes, reads his mind a little and the hand drifts up to cover her forehead. He likes the mind reading but he hates the blush. That she still feels like she has anything to hid, that there’s something that’s  _ too much  _ about her.

“Ok,” she laughs from under her palm. “I think I know what to do. Stop looking at me though!”

Kakashi catches her wrist and guides it away. He plants a kiss in her palm, then another against her brow. “Don’t hide from me.”

“That’s pretty rich coming from you, Kash.” 

“You know what I mean.” He tugs the mask away to emphasize the point. “I fell in love with your mind.”

“Good,” she says with a grin, pushing the scroll back towards him across the kitchen table. “Because you translated these  _ all _ wrong.” 


	6. Chores- ShikaSaku

Sakura promises it’s just one little stop on the way home but an hour later and he’s laden with bags— a sheaf of greens from here, a crusty loaf of bread from there. A pound of beets on sale, a carton of bluish eggs. She’s haggling over a dozen shrimp when they’re spotted. 

“Crap,” he sighs as Kiba bares down on them from across the market.

“Cuuuute,” Kiba croons, wiggling Shikamaru’s cheek between pinched fingers. “She got you wearing the apron, too?”

“I wear the apron,” Sakura chides, tucking her chin over Shikamaru’s shoulder and sticking out her tongue. 

“Just the apron,” Shikamaru says with a grin. They leave Kiba to figure it out, a good two blocks away before he guffaws and lets out a wolfish whistle after them. 

At home he helps unpack the groceries and then sits down at the kitchen table with a crossword to pretend to do. Really he’s watching his girlfriend buzz around her tiny kitchen, filling a vase with water for flowers, heating water, scrubbing vegetables.

Dinner is an algorithm he never learned. He’d always been out in a field or with his back to the stove when his mother cooked and now he regrets it. Looking back, all the chore avoiding had gotten nothing but a filthy apartment and no marketable domestic skills. 

Sakura had almost melted listening to Hinata’s account of Naruto making her a grilled cheese. A grilled cheese— not even a real meal, just toast.

More than he can make. She’d forbidden him from using her toaster after setting the fire alarm off for the fifth time. 

It seems like it should come easy— cooking looks like a series of tight calculations the way Sakura does it. No movement is wasted, no angle unmeasured. She’s running water over the greens while the onion cooks down in the pan, peels shrimp in the sink while a foot arches over to turn down the burner on the rice.

Shikamaru smirks. “Haven’t seen that move before.”

“Oh yes,” she says seriously, not looking up from the cutting board. “Very secret Konoha cooking technique. Really I should kill you now that you’ve seen it.”

Shikamaru scoffs and leaves his untouched crossword on the table, comes up behind her to ease the leg back down to the floor, massaging her thighs and stomach as she deveins the grey little prawns. “Mmmm, teach me, Sakura-sensei.”

She wiggles against him and giggles, meets his kiss with a turn of her head. “Given your track record… why don’t you start with setting the table.”


	7. Sick Day- ItaSaku

“Oh, sweetie.” Sakura hides a laugh behind a palm. “Oh, you poor thing.”

“I don’t need pity,” Itachi sniffles. He’s wrapped in three layers of blanket, a chunky scarf wound around his neck. Surrounding him are the remnants of slices of toast, soup bowls, cold mugs of tea. There’s a tin take out container with congealed sauce and wood chopsticks. He’s got a humidifier and a heater and an air purifier all whirring loudly. And he has a copy of  _ Icha Icha tactics _ hidden under the covers. Badly hidden.

“Really? Because you look so….” She sighs away the word  _ pathetic _ because it will only make him more so. “Cute.”

He sniffs, wriggles his red nose, narrows his wet eyes. “I’m not cute.”

“You are extremely cute,” she promises, leaning over to find some patch of skin that’s not snotty or sweaty. She settles for the crown of his head and he softens under her touch. “Cold or not.”

“I’ve been thinking.” He shifts his blanket cocoon to follow her to the kitchen, padding silently on socked feet and still nearly tripping over her like an eager puppy. “That this might not  _ be _ a cold.”

“Oh? I’m pretty sure your doctor knows what she’s talking about.” Sakura smiles and puts on the kettle. “She’s pretty smart.”

“Yes, yes, smart and gorgeous and brave and powerful.” Itachi hurries the compliments along with a wave of his hand. “There’s only one like her in every other generation. But I’m  _ thinking _ , it doesn’t make sense that someone of my constitution—“

“Tach,” she admonishes. “Have you been reading those ScrollMD things between romance novels?”

Itachi covers his blush by drawing his blankets closer around him. She reaches over to pet his cheeks, press the cool back of her hand to his forehead.

“You are a man. A talented, intelligent, meticulously disciplined, stunningly handsome man. But still, just a man.” She kisses his eyelids before turning to take the whistling kettle off the stove. “Not even the Uchiha have figured out how to defend against the common cold.”

“But, Sak…”

Itachi deflates a little and she pushes him back to his sick nest on the floor. By the time she comes back with his tea he’s asleep again, snoring softly with a dino plushie tucked under his head. She arranges his assorted mugs and plates into a heart and places the fresh tea in the middle. 

On the way out she runs into Shisui bearing a fresh round of take-out.

“How’s Patient 0?” He pops open a container of bao, filling the hallway with the smell of grilled meat and fresh herbs. 

“Condition is stable, consistent with previous symptom presentation.” 

“Total paranoid baby?”

Sakura grins and reaches for another steamed bun. “Yup.” 


	8. Weather based meet cute- GaaLee

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> certainly the fluffiest nonsense i've ever written and i love it.

_ Nine hundred and ninety-eight, nine hundred and ninety-nine… _

Lee takes the final hop of his record breaking handstand run and flips to his feet, a nonsense syllable of victory tripping between his lips. There’s no one to see his triumph and that’s ok. The sweetest victories are always—

There. Only a few yards away.

Sheltering from the rain under a gnarled acacia tree is the kazekage, dressed in his ceremonial robes and completely alone. 

“Oh!” Lee wipes a palmful of rain from his cheeks. It started drizzling sometime around seven hundred and thirty and has turned into a warm caress of a summer shower, too gentle to even disturb the delicate honeysuckle petals that lace along the walls of the village. “I didn’t see you there, Kazekage-sama.”

  
  


“I apologize for startling you.” His voice is whisper soft, blending with the gentle patter of rain. Lee feels heat gathering on his cheeks. 

_ Funny _ , he thinks,  _ the blood should be draining away from my head now that I’m back on my feet _ . 

“I’m n-never startled.” He strikes a Nice Guy™ pose as best he can, blinking against sweat and rainwater dripping into his. “Only a little surprised to see you here alone.”

“It’s my fault.” Gaara averts his eyes as Lee approaches, pulling his robe tighter around his throat. “I wanted to be alone with my thoughts and instead got stuck in this deluge.” 

“Nothing to apologize for.” Lee stands at a respectful distance, as respectful as possible under the canopy of the tree. Still close enough to reach a hand to touch the rough green linen… Lee shakes his head. Maybe he’s dehydrated. “Though it’s not exactly a typhoon, just a summer sunshower. With the honeysuckle blooming it’s the perfect day for a walk in the rain. Konoha is quite beautiful… well all year round but especially during the summer rains!” 

He holds a hand out to catch the warm rain in his cupped palm, as if to show its harmlessness. When it’s filled he draws it to his mouth, quenching a suddenly dry throat. The kazekage smells like warm stones and fresh cut herbs. Lee thinks he probably smells like 1,000 handsteps around the village. 

“Is it?” Gaara's expression is strange, impressed maybe but something else. Pleased? Relieved? Lee has gotten pretty good at reading stoic faces (a particular triumph— decoding Neji’s dishonored face from his hungry face). Gaara’s still eludes him. “Perhaps I’m not used to it. In Suna we have sandstorms and we have thunderstorms. Nothing you’d want to take a walk in.” 

Lee smiles and hops into a heroic pose. “Then permit me to take you on a tour, Kazekage-san! I know a place we can watch the giant carp, if you don’t mind getting a little wet. And if… if you don’t have anything else to do.”

“I have nothing else to do,” Gaara says quickly and then tucks his chin into his robe, too slowly to hide the pink in his pale cheeks. “What I mean is. I’ve finished my business with the hokage and would be… flattered. Honored. Um… pleased. Please call me Gaara.” 

“Yosh!” Lee grins and thumbs up again. “Don’t worry! I’ll show you the best Konoha has to offer. How do you feel about teppanyaki, Kazekage-sama?”

Gaara lifts a courtly elbow and Lee loops his under so that the younger man’s hand rests on Lee’s wrapped knuckles. 

“Gaara,” he reminds Lee gently. 

He’s overcome by the smell of honeysuckle and fresh herbs and wet dust turning to mud on the road. He wishes his hands were bare so he could feel those slim fingertips, peeking alluringly from under a long sleeve, against his skin. As if on command, the pale fingers flex against his tan, muscular hand as if testing the thickness of the bandages, the relative distance of Lee’s skin from his own.

“If you—if you don’t mind getting a little wet, Lord Gaara” Lee repeats. If the kazekage was the type to roll his eyes he would have but instead he smiles. 

“I think I can handle a little rain.” Arm in arm, two sets of weak knees and thumping hearts step out into the warm drizzle as birds chirp and the sun breaks through the clouds. “To spend the afternoon with you.” 


	9. I fell in love with your mind (redux)- KakaSaku

By all accounts it should be a harrowing day but leave it to Kakashi to make saving him from kidnappers…  _ fun. _

She follows a trail of scratched rocks, broken branches, a disintegrating blossom of ambient chakra— things only she would see and know. The set of pigeon toed sandal prints. Three slugs arranged on a large leaf. A rough sketch of a sharingan tomoe. A pile of white clementine peelings. 

She figures out where they’re headed about five clues from the end and redirects the rest of her squad to rendezvous there. She flies through the trees, barely stopping to appreciate the signs he’s left for her. She wants to find him, to save him, to devour him.

The last one pulls a strangled, angry sob from her chest and she leaps away without disturbing the line of petals arranged in an infinity sign. It’s not a wayfinding direction at all but a bittersweet goodbye.  _ Always you _ . 

Time is short and she doesn’t think her legs can go any faster but they do and she can  _ smell _ him, smell his blood in the clearing ahead so she smashes through the treeline with a charged fist just as Yamato bursts through the other side, shaking his head and twirling a cage of wood around Kakashi’s assailants.

She redirects the angry energy at the last second into a boulder, pulverizing the stone beneath her knuckles. In their wooden cell, one of would-be kidnappers shits his pants. Kakashi, bound in chakra-draining rope and loopy from blood loss grins. “That’s my baby!” 

“Senpai.” Yamato blushes and presses a palm against the gushing wound on Kakashi's leg. “Please shut up.” 

“Yama-taichou’s right.” Sakura drops to her knees next to them, chest still heaving. “You’re a fucking idiot, Kakashi.”

“I didn’t say that…”

“Knew you’d find me.” Kakashi’s eyes flutter as Sakura’s minty chakra stabilizes his heartrate, his breathing, the flow of blood to his brain. “Can’t be that stupid.” 

“Yes, you absolutely can be,” she says gently, loosening the rope and guiding him to his back. A familiar gesture but never before in this context. Kakashi waggles a brow at her. She snorts. “Ok, yeah you’re definitely an idiot.” 

Yamato drifts away to direct the transfer of the kidnappers to the nearest black site. Ino will take over from here and Sakura can pracitcally hear the happy giggle her childhood rival will enjoy pulling on her gloves for these assholes. 

She waves away the offer of a medical escort, except for Sai who blankly refuses to leave, settling himself in a tree with his pen and ink until she’s ready to move the patient.

Once the area is cleared she pulls Kakashi's sweaty head into her lap and starts combing the leaves and twigs from his hair.

“Did you like my scavenger hunt?” His smile is broad and goofy despite his recent proximity to death. 

“I liked the last one better.”

Kakashi’s grin threatens to crack his face, she glances over her shoulder to make sure Sai is pretending not to look at them before pulling down his mask to peck kisses along his smile. 

“Guess a stupid, blood covered old man is a much worse prize than a bubble bath with rose petals and a bottle of champagne.”

“I wouldn’t say that.” Sakura kisses him once more before replacing the mask. They’ll need to get up soon but it’s a still moment so rare and fragile she can’t make herself do it. “All those signs, they could have killed you if they found out.”

“The slug one was dicey,” he admits. 

“They were  _ all _ dicey.” 

“What? Don’t cry.” He reaches up to wipe hot tears from her cheeks. A dozen yards away , Sai’s paintbrush stutters on the page and he shakes his head at the smell of saltwater. “I thought I was being smart leaving a trail for you.”

“Like I can’t track you by nose alone,” she scoffs, sniffling back another round of tears. The truth is she would have never found him in time without his help and the thought frightens her. She should be able to save all her precious people, no assistance required. “You smell like Pakkun on bath day.” 

Kakashi laughs and it turns into a labored cough and she shifts him to a sitting position, laying her head against his back as she heals the tattered tissue around his lungs. 

“Please, Kash. Please be smart next time. For me?” It’s barely more than a whisper but his body stiffens like it’s been struck before he softens against her, lips finding her cheek to kiss an apology. 

“For you,” he agrees with a sigh. 

“Can we go?” Sai is standing next to them, petulant frown on his lips. “My girlfriend is mercilessly torturing someone and I’d like to watch.”

“Well my girlfriend is a medical savant and she says I can’t move yet,” Kakashi whines in return. “Right, sweetie?”

Sakura rolls her eyes. “Five more minutes. Sai, what are you drawing?”

He holds up the scroll, a doodle of the two of them that’s not completely unkind. Besides her perturbed expression Sakura looks almost pretty, and he’s foregone the cartoonish wrinkles and stoop he usually gives Kakashi. They’re curled around each other, and he’s captured the exact loving angle of Kakashi’s fingertips on her cheeks. 

“I call it ‘Idiots to Lovers’.” 


	10. Grooming/Spa Day- SakuShino

“Hmmmm.”

Sakura peeks over the top of her magazine, triumphant smile tickling at the corner of her mouth.

“Enjoying yourself, Shino-kun?”

He blushes, tries to hide his face in his hoodie but it’s not there, replaced by a plush white robe with a lead embroidered on the lapel.

He mutters something, averts his gaze even though he’s insisted on keeping the glasses on. Sakura giggles, wiggles her toes in the water. A school of little black fish swarm over her feet, nibbling the dead skin from her heels.

“Thanks for coming with me,” she laughs against his contented silence. “Everyone else I asked was too squeamish to try.”

“I’m always open to new experiences,” Shino replies softly, leaning forward to examine the fishlings that dart around his own toes. “This is certainly…. unique.”

She reaches a hand over to touch his hand. It’s surprisingly supple after a paraffin wax dip, nails buffed and smooth. His skin glows from their vitamin C facials and the seaweed wrap she was sure he’d back out of.

“We can go after this,” she promises, hand still in his. She’s spent more time today with the Aburame than she has in the decade they’ve known each other and has enjoyed every minute of it.

“Only if you’d like.” He brushes a thumb over her knuckles and a tingle of anticipation zings up her spine. “I was thinking we should take advantage of the complimentary sauna before we leave.”

“Sounds good to me,” she says. Only a little breathless.

After their pescatarian pedicure they part ways to shower off before the sauna. Sakura lathers herself with the yuzu scented body wash from the wall mounted dispenser and hums to herself.

“Shino-kun’s really full of surprises,” she muses, toweling off. She wraps herself in one of the soft, thin cloths provided and walks out of the changing room to meet him.

The sauna is a fragrant cedar cave with a glass door.

“Damn,” she mutters as she approaches. She’d hoped they’d be the only ones there but there’s a tall, muscular man lingering outside. Sakura follows the toned line of his shoulders and back down to a firm rump and muscled legs. She gulps. “Damn.”

As she approaches the man turns and she feels a blush form on her cheeks.

“Shi-Shino,” she mumbles. “I didn’t recognize you.”

Shino shrugs and it inches the thin towel around his hips higher on his thigh. She looks away, pretending to read the thermostat.

“Most people assume it’s just bugs under my clothing,” he says matter of factly.

“I didn’t think that,” she laughs. “I’ve just never um….”

Suddenly she feels flushed. She can feel his dark, liquid eyes on her.

“Seen so much of me?” He quirks a brow, lips slanting into a smile. He opens the door to the sauna and gestures for her to go on first.

“I guess so.” She tries not to sound so breathless as the steams curls around them. Shino pours another cupful of juniper water onto the coals and a fresh plume whites out the room.

“Well if you’re ever interested,” he says neutrally, laying an extra towel on the bench across from her. “There’s more.”

He lies back and closes his eyes, breath evening out meditatively.

Sakura squirms and bites her lip and then follows his lead.

_So much for relaxing_


	11. Spookyween- SaiSaku

Sai frowns. Puts down the DVD. Picks it up. Frowns again.

“So you want to be scared?”

“Yeah.” Sakura looks at him in the mirror, eyeliner poised against her cheek to finish the cat whiskers. There’s already a black oval on her nose and winged liner around her eyes.

(“Cats don’t wear eyeliner”, Sai had pointed out.)

“But nothing scares you.”

“Exactly.” Sakura finishes her whiskers and adjusts the fuzzy black ears on her head. She’d borrowed them from Sasuke in exchange for her Little Red Ridinghood cloak.

(”Keep it.” They’d stammered mutually. )

“I don’t get it.” He puts down the movie and picks up a piece of candy from the coffee table. He doesn’t understand Halloween but he likes the candy. “ I thought that illusion of safety was paramount to civil society.”

“Wow, that’s a lot of words to admit you’re chicken, Sai.” Sakura smirks. ““Just— trust me.”

He waits a beat, watching her check her reflection in the mirror. Her costume is little more than black leggings and a sweater, a pair of fuzzy cats paw socks on her feet and her nails painted to match. She turns and grins and makes a mreowing motion at him.

Sai shakes his head.

“Ok so it’s not going to win any awards,” she scoffs. “It’s not like anyone’s going to see me but our friends.”

Sai smiles, crooked and true, and tilts his head. “I hate my costume.”

“Shut up,” she growls, slamming the oven door on a tray of spooky shaped chicken nuggets. “You are a vampire of joy.”

Everyone shows up at once. There’s a round of hoots whistles at Sasuke’s frilly corset dress and red cape and he turns beet red and turns to leave but Naruto, dressed in a red plaid shirt and wolf ears grabs him. Ino is dressed voluptuously as a witch and Choji as a sumo wrestler. Shikamaru wears a T-shirt printed with a skeletal rib cage.

(“None of you dressed up,” Sai says innocently.)

Team 8 has gone with a group costume— Rock, Paper, Scissors. Lee wears a felt pumpkin two sizes too small but no one is going to tell him. TenTen is a ballerina but has covered herself in fake blood. Neji wears just a pair of grey ears.

(“I’m a mouse,” he sneers after some prodding. “Duh.”)

They start the movie and Kiba flicks off the light with a grin and a theatrical, ghostly moan. Hinata weaves her arms around Shino’s and buried her face in his arm.

“It hasn’t even started yet,” Kiba scoffs, sliding an arm around both of them as he settles into the couch. “It’s just the credits.”

“What was the point of getting dressed up if we’re all going to sit in the dark,” Sai whispers in Sakura’s ear as a bloody figure limps across the screen.

“Shhhh,” everyone responds.

Halfway through the movie, just as the main character obviously shampoo’s her hair and the shower curtain begins to rustle, Sakura gasps and grabs his forearm.

“It’s not real,” he murmurs against the crown of her head. In the dark it’s easy to be close to her. They’re sitting together on the never used beanbag chair, the rest of the seats claimed by couples and throuples and platonic cuddlers of all affiliations. He couldn’t have orchestrated it more perfectly if he’d tried. The squishy seat beneath them keeps sinking them closer together until he has to put an arm around her and she has no choice but to tuck her knees to her chest and slide her feet between his outstretched legs.

“I know,” she squeaks before jamming her face in the crook of his arm. The shower curtain being sliced in half as the still clueless heroine hums the itsy bitsy spider like an idiot.

“Damn girl!! Look!!” Ino screams between nibbling her nails. “Spatial awareness, bitch!!!”

Kiba laughs uproariously at the cartoonish attack on the screen, the ten gallons of fake blood that flood the bathroom.

“Man I’d destroy this guy,” TenTen sighs.

“This is stupid,” Sasuke scoffs, blushing as Naruto’s hand inches up from his bare knee towards the flouncy ruffle of his skirt.

“Is it over?” Hinata is practically buried under Shino.

“Yes, you can look.” Neji smirks in the dark, laces his fingers with Lee’s. Hinata pops her head up, squeals in terror at the gory scene still unfolding on screen, and disappears again.

“That’s not nice,” TenTen giggles against his cheek, smudging him with fake blood.

The violence escalates to a fever pitch onscreen.

Around the room, palms tighten over knees, bodies snuggle closer, comforting kisses are given surreptitiously. Sakura has her face buried in his chest, fists gripping his costume cloak, and his hand is on her lower back.  
  
He catches Sasuke’s eye. He’s holding Naruto like a baby, rolls his eyes at Sai and looks back at the screen, smirk pressed against Naruto’s cheek.

“Oh,” says Sai, bringing his other arm around her, thumb brushing against the hem of her sweater tentatively.

She peeks up from her hiding spot, mischievous grin on her face. Her palms slide from the hem of his cape to the flat of his ribs beneath it.

“Get it,” she purrs, nibbling her lip like an invitation. 

“I think so.”

(He doesn’t.)

Sakura in his lap, the lights off, every excuse in the world to have his hands on her.

It’s better than candy.


	12. Outdoors- ShikaSaku

“This is nice,” Sakura sighs for the hundredth time.

“You keep saying that.” Shikamaru smiles and shakes his head as he poked the fire.

“ I know.” Sakura snuggles closer, watching the stars wink on. “Cuz it’s still nice. Out in nature, camping out. A little fire. How come we’ve never done this before?”

“We’ve done this like a hundred times.” He sighs but draws her closer under his arm, kisses the crown of her head. “Remember that time you ‘lost your bedroll’…”

“I don’t mean on missions,” she scoffs, swatting his arm. Her hand softens against his sleeve, gripping lightly in a gesture so childlike and earnest Shika bites his lip to stop himself sighing. “And I maintain I DID lose my bedroll. Though it was a great excuse to make you make a move.”

“Ahhh, she finally admits it.” Shikamaru captures her in a kiss.

They stay like this, mouths moving gently against each other, the crackle of fire and the cooling breeze. A comet streaks overhead and they don’t see it. A pair of deer mosey in and out of the clearing and they don’t even notice. They both smell of embers and taste like fire from their over grilled dinner.

After awhile, her head slips to his shoulder and she breaks the kiss with a contented sigh. She holds up one hand, letting the firelight dance on the simple band on her ring finger. The stone is set into the metal so she can always keep it on without worrying about it snagging or scratching. On the inside is engraved a stray line from one of their favorite poems.

_In rash cascades, so too us, sweet_

_“Shall be together after all,”_ Shikamaru murmurs, finishing the couplet. 

Sakura smiles drowsily. “Can we do this every night, Shik?”

“Anything you want, love.” He kisses her ringed hand and settles it back on his stomach. He watches the moon break through the clouds as if it’s disrobing. The cicadas click and somewhere an owl hoots. Her pulse is soft and even against him, lulling him to sleep.

Shikamaru shakes his head to dispel it, maneuvers his pack and lighter from his pocket. He wants to hold onto the moment a little longer, at least as long as it takes to smoke a cigarette. Who knows how many nights like this they’ll have. His parents had planned to grow old together too.

 _As long as it’s with her,_ Asuma’s voice comes to him as he watches his wife’s chest rise and fall, innocent to the world even for just the night. _However long I have is enough._  
  
  
Shikamaru dips down to kiss her cheek though she’s already asleep and dreaming, eyes flickering under the lids. A smile dances on her lips. 

“Whatever you want.”

_The full poem, by Emperor Sutoku:_

_As water of a stream will meet,  
Though, barred by rocks, apart it fall  
In rash cascades, so we too, sweet,  
Shall be together after all._


	13. I guess we're raising a baby- GaaLee

Of all the things Lee expects to find in Suna after the scrawled, omnious message delivered by an exhausted hawk, it isn’t this.

_Quickly, love._

He’d run at a dead sprint for two days, sleeping on his feet when he couldn’t run anymore. Eating grass. Generally overdoing it. 

He stumbles through the gates of Suna and someone recognizes, carries him halfway to the kazekage’s mansion before Kankuro intercepts them. 

“What happened?” He shoulders Lee like a rag doll and walks him the rest of the way.

“ Quickly– Gaara had said– come quickly!”

Kankuro slaps him awake once they arive, insists that he sit down and drink a glass of water, and Lee flails like a heartbroken squid trying to get past him. Finally he breaks free, running bonelessly through the kage’s private apartments and calling to his boyfriend– no, not his boyfriend, his love, the most precious person he’d ever–

“Lee!” Kankuro sprints after him. “Your going to wake the—”

Lee busts open to the door to the bedroom and gasps.

In a wicker chair, a square of sunlight by the window sits Gaara. Bundled in his arms is a cream colored blanket swaddled around a baby.

A baby.

Gaara holds his finger to his lips, love dancing in his eyes, and beckons him over.

A baby!

“Darling.” Lee kisses his forehead gently. “I came as quick as I could.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to alarm you.” He lifts the sleepy nugget a bit so Lee can see the baby’s shock of dark hair and almond eyes. “I should have consulted you first but…”

“I thought something was wrong!” Lee kisses him again, his eyes never leaving the snoring infant, pulling him as close as he dares without disturbing bundle in his arms. 

Gaara looks a little dumbfounded. He’d expected Lee to at least be surprised. He’d been looking forward to it.

“I thought something was wrong,” he repeats. He reaches out to lay a finger alongside the baby’s tiny fist. It stirs, grips his finger and he has to bite his lip to stop from crying. “This is…”

“Shinki,” Gaara finishes. “Shinki this is…”

“Papa,” finishes Lee with a sniff.

“Papa and Father,” Gaara nuzzles Lee’s cheek with his nose and draws him close. “And Shinki.”

(In the hallway, Kankuro wipes his eyes and grins like the world is just beginning.)


	14. Books- KakaYama

Kakashi eyes the librarian, checks his watch, sighs loudly. The librarian just rolls his eyes and goes back to checking in the mountain of books next to him.

“It’s almost five, Iruka.”

“I know, Mr.Hatake. Almost time for me to go home.”

There’s a long pause.

“She’s cutting it a little close.”

“Who is, Mr. Hatake?” 

Iruka has worked at the Konoha branch of the library for six years, and for six years Mr. Hatake has plagued him. On this particular day, he’s administered death by a thousand cuts. Three hours and forty-seven minutes of wheedling over the return of a certain title he’s been on the waitlist for, sitting in the worn chair across from the circulation desk, tapping his foot and unnerving the other patrons. 

Those who disregard due dates are lower than trash, he’d once said. 

“Whatever bored, undersexed housewife stole the new Icha Icha out from under me the day it came in. I would have been here at opening if I hadn’t gotten lost—“

“Oh.” Iruka smirks, if he was capable of smirking which he’s not really. It’s more of a wry smile “I know who you’re talking about. The book will be back before five, Mr. Hatake, trust me. This patron is extremely reliable.”

Kakashi huffs.

“You could go buy the book, of course,” Iruka offers slyly. “Then you wouldn’t have to wait.”

He shakes his head. “If I like it I’ll buy it.”

Iruka sighs. He knows for a fact that Mr.Hatake always ends up buying the new Icha Icha.

The front door blows up, carrying with it some flecks of rain and a gust of cold air and a tall, thickly muscled young man in a tan trench coat and wet dress shoes.

“Sorry to keep you, Iruka!” He catches his breath at the circulation desk. Kakashi sidles next to him, still reading his folded newspaper. “I got caught up at work and then the train was a mess. You’d think people would— um… hello?”

Kakashi is standing too close, waiting peevishly for Iruka to process the book. Iruka is going as slowly as possible. 

“No worries at all, Mr. Hatake is just a little anxious to take out the new Icha—-“

The younger man blushes and holds up a hand. “Please, Iruka, not so loud.”

“Did she enjoy it?” Kakashi asks brusquely.

“Did who enjoy …?”

“Did your wife,” Kakashi enunciates each syllable. “Enjoy the book.”

“I’m not.. umm.. the book was for…” A blush blooms on the man’s face. “ThebookwasformealsoImgay.”

“Huh.” Kakashi holds his library card out to Iruka, who scans it painfully slow. He’s got very little entertainment these days. This is going to be the highlight of his Saturday night. 

The PA system kicks on and it’s the head librarian, a mean, buxom blonde who goes by Miss Senju and enjoys prowling the computer banks ejecting perverts, growls that the library will be closing soon.

“In that case.” Kakashi practically yanks the book from Iruka’s hands and the librarian smirks for real this time. “Would you like to get a cup of coffee and talk about it?”

“You haven’t even started it yet,” Iruka blurts out in disbelief as the beefy stranger blushes deeper. 

“Oh, I already bought it,” Mr. Hatake says blithely, as if he hasn’t spent the afternoon torturing Iruka over a book he already owns, and offers his arm to the younger man. “It was excellent, don’t you agree….?”

“Ten..Tenzou,” he replies a little breathlessly, taking the arm. “And yes, I’d love to, Mr.Hatake.” 

Iruka watches them leave the building murmuring about the exquisite sadness of the final scene with his mouth agape. When they’re gone, he releases an exasperated groan, lets his forehead fall to the desk with a distinct thump.


	15. Games/Competition- GenSaku

Sakura schools her expression. Closes the cover of thick lashes over triumphant green eyes. Tries to hide the smile on her face.

Her opponent scoffs. “I fold.”

“No way!” Sakura gasps and throws her hand face down on the table. “ I was gonna win!”

“Have you ever played poker before?” Genma laughs. “Obviously not. You can’t keep anything off your face. You might as well be showing me your cards.”

“Listen. I want you to take those pants off,” she says seriously, palms gripping the table. She’s a bit cold, down to her bindings and panties while he’s fully dressed, but the heat of her competitiveness is keeping her cheeks flushed. Or maybe it’s the way Genma keeps checking her out like he hasn’t seen it a thousand times before.

“That’s not how it works, babe.” He waggles the senbon between his teeth and gathers the cards to reshuffle. “Damn, Sak. This reminds me of when we first got together.”

She rolls her eyes and crosses her arms, subtlety flexing the lean, powerful muscles she knows he adores.

“How so? That you have me in my panties and it’s not even sundown?”

“Nah.” He slides closer, grinning, running his hands over her thighs. “I dunno, the light. That cute little look you have on your face. Like you’ll do anything to win.”

“It’s not supposed to be cute,” she smirks, pulls the senbon from his mouth . “A sane man would be scared.”

“Guess I’m crazy,” he replies against her lips before deepening his touch into a kiss.

Her hands go to his hair, pulling him forward until he almost falls from his chair. He catches his breath and scoffs, nuzzling his nose against hers.

“Nice try, Mrs.Shiranui,” he whispers against her cheek. “Distraction tactics won’t work on me.”

“Hmph.” Sakura grins and shimmies the end of her wraps from where it’s tucked under her bust. She didn’t lose but there’s still a chance for victory, if she adjusts her attack plan. Genma growls and bites his lip and sits up to shuffle, eyes trained on the way his wife winds up the cotton wraps around her hand. “We’ll see about that.”


	16. Sick Day- SasuHina

Hinata is halfway to a delirious sleep when there’s a soft rap on the window.

“Lady Hinata?” The voice is soft, tinged with worry and she almost trips over her blankets to get to the window. She wipes her nose and loses her nerve before she can open it.

“Hina? Are you ok?”

“I’m fine, Sasuke-kun,” she whispers, putting her hand against the rice paper pane between them. He does the same on the other side. “What are you doing here?”

“They said you weren’t taking visitors but I— I had to make sure you’re ok.” His voice dances from consternation to tender concern and she feels the blush rise her already flushed cheeks.

“Don’t get in trouble for me,” she giggles. “I’m fine, it’s just a cold. I just get a little… um..”

Hinata leans against the wall, her energy flagging.

“Well.” Sasuke clears his throat. “I wanted to see you.”

He waits.

“Open the window, Hina? It’s been almost a week since I’ve seen your face.”

Hinata freezes. She’s puffy and dripping in the world’s fuzziest, most hideous nightgown. “Um..ummm I don’t know, Sasuke-kun. I’m not very pretty today.”

She can practically hear the smirk through the paper screen.

“As the most beautiful woman on earth, I highly doubt that. Open the window, Hina let me give you a kiss.”

“I’m hideous!” She opens the window a little anyway, peeking through the crack with a shy eye. “And you shouldn’t kiss me anyway. You’ll get sick, too.”

“I’m the one who suggested we go skinny dipping in the first place.” He grins and reaches out to stroke the hair plastered to her forehead.

“I hope you didn’t tell my father that,” she giggles. “They think I caught it doing survival training.”

She opens the window a little more and presents her hand. Sasuke grins and leans down to leave a courtly kiss on her knuckles.

“Hey! Uchiha!”

It’s Neji, of course. The nosy little mother hen must have seen him at the front gates.

“I told you not to sneak around—“

“Until next time,” he says with a laugh, darting out to land a peck on her forehead. Hinata giggles and watches him flash-step over the rooftops and out of the Hyuuga compound.

Neji stops at her window to shake his head disapprovingly before dashing after him.

Hinata grins sheepishly, gives a meek cough into her fist, and slides the window shut before her smile can betray her


End file.
